California State University, Los Angeles (often shortened and referred to as CSULA or Cal State LA) is a state-run public university located in Los Angeles (near Alhambra). It is part of the California State University system.

Cal State LA has been considered a working-class college due to the fact that many students are among the first in their families to attend college. The university is surrounded by the working-class neighborhoods of El Sereno, East Los Angeles, and City Terrace and also nearby middle-class suburbs of Alhambra and Monterey Park.

Cal State Los Angeles was first founded in 1947 and named Los Angeles State College. It was founded by an Act of the California legislature and opens for classes on the campus of L.A. City College; P. Victor Peterson, president of LACC, becomes acting president of the new college. In 1964. It was renamed California State College at Los Angeles (CSCLA) and became part of the California State College (CSC) system formed in 1960. In 1972. The California State College system becomes The California State University and Colleges (CSUC). California State College at Los Angeles receives University status and henceforth is known officially as California State University, Los Angeles or - informally - Cal State L.A.

Serving approximately 21,000 students primarily from the greater Los Angeles area, Cal State L.A. is organized into six colleges that incorporate 50 academic departments and divisions offering a variety of majors. The green, hilltop campus is home to the nation's first Charter College of Education, the NASA-funded SPACE program and other award-winning engineering programs, along with a National Science Foundation-funded environmental research center. Cal State L.A.'s renowned programs include the U.S. News' top-ranked undergraduate business program at a Los Angeles public university, a teacher credential program that has awarded the greatest number of credentials in California, the nation's largest early/pre-teen collegiate program, and the only graduate Criminalistics program west of the Mississippi. Cal State L.A. is the highest ranked California institution conferring bachelor's degrees on Hispanics.